Ongoing Projects​

​Accelerator program for Discovery in Brain disorders using Stem cells (ADBS) (https://www.ncbs.res.in/adbs/home)

Funding: Department of Biotechnology (Govt of India) [Co-ordinators: Dr Sanjeev Jain (NIMHANS) & Dr Raghu Padinjat (NCBS)]Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Co-lead of the Neuroimaging Core of the project) ​ Status: OngoingThis is a multi-institutional project involving NIMHANS, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) & the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (InStem). ADBS is an integrative approach that links basic research with clinical studies of mental illness. The ADBS program would follow up a cohort of young adults from families where there appears to be a high incidence of mental illness (5 disease phenotypes). These families and individuals will be characterised and followed up using detailed investigations ranging from clinical and neuropsychological evaluations to immunometabolic assays to multimodal neuroimaging to molecular genetic and stem cell research.

​An Exploratory Study of the Role of Inflammasomes on Aberrant Neurodevelopment in Schizophrenia

Funding: Department of Science and Technology (DST) (International Bilateral Cooperation Division), Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt of India (DST/INT/TUNISIA/P-11/2017)Role: Principal Investigator Status: OngoingThe study aims to combine various approaches to understand the role of inflammasomes in mediating aberrant neurodevelopment in schizophrenia manifested as brain structural abnormalities. The molecular genetic association part of the study carried out at Tunisia examines the link between polymorphisms of selected SNPs of the inflammasome genes and schizophrenia. Further, a mathematical model for the protein-protein interactions amongst the inflammasomes and between inflammasomes and other immune biomarkers would be generated at NIMHANS, India using bioinformatics tools. This mathematical model would be tested out on structural MRI data of 100 patients with schizophrenia and 100 healthy comparison subjects (India). This model will also be tested out on a mouse model of chronic stress/inflammation (Tunisia).

Funding: Department of Science and Technology (DST) (Cognitive Science Research Initiative) (CSRI) (DST/CSRI/2017/249)Role: Principal InvestigatorStatus: Approved for funding (to be initiated soon)This study has two major objectives 1. to examine the utility of functional connectivity aberrations of resting state and task-related brain networks measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to differentiate amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and early Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) from cognitively healthy elderly subjects; 2. to explore the effectiveness of tDCS in improving cognitive functioning as well as reversing the functional connectivity disturbances in patients with aMCI and mild AD. Extending our previously published works in this area, we hope to identify the earliest demonstrable functional connectivity abnormalities in AD using this approach and link the same with cognitive deficits in patients with aMCI and mild AD.

Imaging and Biochemical Correlates in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with and without Epilepsy

Funding: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)Role: Co-Investigator (PI: Dr John Vijayasagar, Prof of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)​Status: OngoingThe goal of this project is to characterize children with Autism spectrum disorders with and without epilepsy using neuroimaging and biochemical markers​